Canada’s new cheer fizzes out

These four simple words have begun to spark controversy around the country. The winning entry from a contest run by Pepsi Canada, the cheer has been pushed as a new slogan to be shouted at the Canadian Junior hockey games and at the upcoming Vancouver Olympics. But do most Canadians accept this new way of encouraging our brothers and sisters to the top?

“I had more faith in Canada to come up with a better cheer,” says first-year Journalism student Nick Birnie. He admires the fact that a contest was put together to get Canadians to work together for a new cheer, but he finds the winning choice to be “really stereotypical and dumb.” Journalism student Alicia Saunders simply prefers the old cheer, “Go Canada Go.” Saunders isn’t bothered by the fact that the cheer is endorsed by Pepsi, but she “doesn’t like it at all” for the stereotypical ‘eh’ at the beginning of the cheer. Saunders also thinks that the cheer sounds unnatural and forced.

“I thought we were moving away from being known as people who lived in igloos and rode polar bears to school,” she says.

“It’s so awkward to say,” says first-year student Geeta Ramroop, who isn’t thrilled by the new cheer either. “It makes us look like idiots.”

There’s no question that Canada’s new cheer has received a fair amount of hostility. A Facebook group titled “The ‘Eh! Oh! Canada Go!’ Chant is a National Embarrassment” boasts over 90,000 members.

Pepsi’s attempts to market the cheer also failed, as they promised to put the first million Canadians who signed up for their ‘Cheer Nation,’ in the Hockey Hall of Fame for a period of time. Cheer Nation still only boasts under 100,000.

Personally, I think that Canadians should shout whatever their hearts desire when it comes to cheering for our men and women on the field or in the rink. As for the ‘eh’ in the “Eh Oh Canada Go” cheer, I think it’s kind of empowering. Think of how embarrassing it would be for the opposing team to have hundreds of Canadians shouting our catchphrase at them when they lost. Regardless, as long as Canadians show their enthusiasm in some way, we’ve done our job to support our athletes.